Live Audiophile Roundtable: A conversation with the CEO and COO of Discogs. Plus Q and A!
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- Опубликовано: 22 фев 2024
- Please join Steve Westman as he welcomes the CEO Kevin Lewandowski and COO Lloyd Starr of Discogs.
We will learn about the history of Discogs, the growth of the company, look at some of their analytics and future developments plus much more. 
Развлечения
We need pictures on sales listings. I feel like this is the most requested thing and I’m surprised it didn’t come up once. Thanks for the cool interview
It did come up...around the 36 minute mark...they said "it will happen" but didn't supply a timeline.
Another great and educational video.The "World of Discogs"! SO much to learn, with so little time. Just love the passion, that these two gents have for their company.As you do Steve for your channel. Love the fact they are in this for the right, and sincere reasons.Their passion exudes when they talk proudly about the company, which to me is imperative in today's world.I use to work for the Corporate record bigwigs in the UK. Virgin and HMV, and Virgin USA, and you may as well have been selling tins of beans, for all corporate cared.Yet in the Hollywood store, people like Kevin Costner would drop by and pick up a cd for song he might use, in his latest movie.He came up to Scotsman of all staff members, and asked if I had ever heard of Lulu? She not only comes from my own country, but my own city. Karma."To Sir with Love". Sorry I digress, but even he showed a bigger appetite for the music he was after.He's probably a member of Discogs! Anyway it what it is. The World of Discogs seems like it's own little world! Thanks gents.For as long as I'm still here... count me in!!
Images for Sellers and their listings would be a huge upgrade.
That was extremely interesting to see the faces behind Discogs. Long may they continue to develop and improve. I couldn’t live without it !
Update the UI. It’s only marginally better than an internet 1.0 online forum.
I missed live stream, but would have asked why Discogs allows sellers to leave retaliatory negative feedback?
It really goes against the spirit of community, and the intention of Discogs (allowing buyers to make prospective buyers aware of the kind of grading to expect from a seller).
So what we have as a result is extensive neutral feedback comments/reviews (and less so in the negative feedback category) as a perceived method for buyers to protect themselves from the retaliatory negative feedback from dodgy sellers who routinely over-grade their records.
The trend has been for sellers to grade VG or even VG- records as VG+.
I sometimes message ahead to ask if the cosmetic issues cause any audio problems and some then reply “VG+ is not a NM grading” where I then retort, “Yeah, and a VG record is not a VG+ record.”
So many crap sellers using Discogs to unload crap sounding vinyl playing the numbers game on returns(will buyer go through the hassle?) &/or partial refunds.
These sellers are pathological.
You make an excellent point! I've been buying from Discogs for the last several years, maybe around 150 transactions or more. In all that time I can say that I've only had an issue twice with sellers but they didn't involve negative feedback. One fellow overgraded a tad and the other fellow mislisted an album and when I brought it to his attention he proudly replied, 'Look at my feedback, I don't make mistakes' (it was 100 at the time, it is lower now but not because of me - and yes, he DID list it incorrectly) But, those were the only two that were really unpleasant in any way.
Now, what I attribute that too, if you don't mind my sharing this, is that *EVERY* time I am interested in an album I *ALWAYS* write the seller first. I write a very nice and polite message stating that I have a moderately sensitive system and if they don't mind I am double checking how they feel about the condition of the vinyl. In almost every case, the seller has answered nicely and most times actually play tested parts of the vinyl for me and reported back. Some have said honestly that they don't have a turntable and it is just a visual grade (so at least I know) and in some rare instances a seller might be just a tad snarky, which basically tells me to go elsewhere.
So, in doing this each and every time in a very pleasant and courteous manner, I basically and fortunately have had pretty much 100% success with all the albums I have purchased. And, of course, I have always chosen sellers that have excellent feedback and a good history. Basically, just good, polite communication ahead of time makes all the difference. I hope that helps!
Agreed, Discogs needs to follow ebay's lead and remove the ability for sellers to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers. With the possible cavaet of the ability to still leave automatic negs for non-paying buyers when an order is cancelled as NPB.
There are too many sellers sending out overgraded crap knowing that buyers won't return because it would cost them and if they leave a neg complaining the seller just retaliates and also gets the neg removed on the basis that the buyer did not follow the "correct" resolution process - i.e. paying out of their own pockets to return the item. Or the seller will negotiate a partial refund for something, had they graded correctly, the buyer wouldnt have bought in the first place.
Also remove the rules that mean a feedback can be removed if a buyer does not get in touch first before leaving feedback. It should be up to the seller to remove the problem and get the buyer to remove/revise the feedback to reflect this. There is no incentive whatsoever for sellers to fix problems they caused.
And I say all this as someone who sells but does not buy on discogs. The feedback system is fundamentally broken and is being widely exploited. A sellers first reaction to receiving a neg or neutral should be "how do I fix the problem for the buyer so they are happy and possibly remain as a repeat customer" not "How do I get this feedback removed".
Steve. Well done. They (Kevin and Lloyd ) had some great ideas (queries) posed to them so this session was beneficial to all parties. So - you casual viewers - get subscribed to this channel even if you have a limited interest in the VC (vinyl community) as you will soon garner a wide perspective on the growing trend and interest in collecting and mainly enjoying playing your records.
Great stuff, Steve. Some of those percentages surprised me, but they make sense when you think about people in the VC and what kind of collectors they are and their buying habits. I guess this niche bunch of record collectors are just a small example of the bigger picture and are a good gauge of most collectors.
That said, I still don’t agree with the shipping fees, no matter what reason I’m given. It’s obviously not a big enough problem to stop using Discogs, which I’ve been a member of for over 12 years. I try and think of the extra fees being part of the price for having such an amazing database of physical music formats and a place to keep a list of all my records.
Great show Steve! Was good to hear from the Discogs guys directly and there were some great ideas. Looking forward to when you have them on again after we get hands on with the new app. I can kind of see where the thinking on the fees comes from but still not a fan of it. Not sure I have an alternative approach so 🤷 Cheers D
My only issue with discogs is fees. It is very difficult to sell items in the 25$ - 50$ price range now compared to a year ago when the fees were lower. It's only made every seller raise the prices of their items.
I’ve been asking for option to sort by ORIGINAL release date for YEARS.
People were asking for a lot of new features in the live feed but I’d just like Discogs to resolve the issues they have with the database especially around values. No values shown on the collection page where there are values on the release page and different values shown on the collection page to the release page. Surely this is basic stuff that wouldn’t occur on a simple Excel spreadsheet.
they should finally add a goddamn "block seller" feature!!
Never going to happen.
@@Jayfive276 yeah i know, but i had to vent lol
missing total value amout of inventory & any adjustment and merge option between both inventory and collection
This is awesome Steve, thank you! Um... you know me 😊 Bro, why do you when one of your guests is talking, you make them 'big' and then only like a minute later you minimize them even though they are still talking. NO ONE else does that and I notice you do that to all your guests. I think it really distracts from THEM and what they are saying. Why do you do that, it really seems weird Bro... How about you just leave them 'big' until they are done talking like every other person does. Forgive me, but it gives the impression like you want the attention back on you or something. But, even if not that, it honestly REALLY distracts from when your guest is talking. And, like I mentioned, NOBODY else does that, they let them finish 'big' until they are done. It's almost like you are saying, 'Okay, that's enough, thank you' Just kinda weird... Had to tell you... 😁 I think what you need to do, and I'm sure you would agree with this, is have your family check out these things that I mention and see what they say. See if they also find it quite distracting. Just a thought...